Dr Found regularly presents specialist workshops, in handwriting and signature forensics to practitioners in Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada and Europe. He conducts these programs in his capacity as a Senior Research Fellow (School of human Biosciences, Latrobe University).

Currently the following workshops are available for internal training, seminars or conferences:

• Disguised Writing: An interactive 2 day workshop
• Forgery Science: An interactive 2 day workshop
• The Scientific Paradigm: An interactive 1.5 day workshop

Disguised writing: An interactive workshop
Duration 2 days

Empirical research strategies focussed on the elucidation and characterisation of Forensic Document Examiners’ (FDEs) skills has resulted in a body of data that indicates that there is a significant difference between the profiles of FDEs’ opinions on ‘natural’ versus ‘un-natural’ writings. Disguise and simulation behaviours have emerged as being particularly problematic for FDEs. These behaviours will be discussed with reference to theories of motor control and studies of writer behaviour. The application of these theories to forensic casework will be overviewed.  The goal is to focus on known examples of un-natural writing and understand why the shared nature of disguise and simulation predictors may result in erroneous authorship opinions.

Attendees will participate in hands-on examination of signatures and text samples to gain practical experience and to sharpen their skills in detecting un-natural writing predictors. At the end of the workshop attendees will be familiar with the relevant research on the subject, have gained an understanding of the difference between natural and un-natural writing behaviours and will have had experience examining samples of these writings with their peers.

Forgery Science: an interactive workshop
Duration 2 days

Forensic Document Examiners frequently encounter cases where signature forgery is alleged. Although much has been written on the topic of forgery and its predictors, the psycho-physiological basis of why it is that skilled signatures are difficult for individuals to mimic successfully has, for a variety of historical reasons, attracted little attention. This workshop will provide participants with information that should enable them to rationalise the features of forgery from a behavioural perspective.

Topics will include:

• Basic elements of the nervous system
• How the nervous system communicates
• Sensory/motor systems
• The control of handwriting movements
• Mimicking of movement control
  

Throughout the course, participants will be provided with opportunities to examine forged signatures and carry out blind tests to assist in the personal assessment of their skill with respect to relating theoretical constructs to casework problems.

Constructing a scientific paradigm for forensic handwriting identification evidence:
The use of blind testing to characterise specialists’ skills
Duration 1.5 days

This interactive 1.5 day workshop will explore the working research philosophy which has developed largely in response to academic criticism of forensic handwriting evidence as not being ‘scientific’ in character. Forensic Document Examiners in Australia and New Zealand have collaborated with an empirical scientific approach to their discipline for a number of years in an attempt to re-define the field in terms of accepted scientific principles. From this research the discipline now has access to empirical data which is providing the basic construct from which the probative value of specific categories of identification and exclusionary evidence can be inferred. In addition, the participation in blind testing has provided a window into elements of theory, aspects of claimed expertise, estimates of potential error rates, and has resulted in a large database of writings from which new training and research approaches can be based.

Topics to be discussed will be:

• Criticism of the evidence
• The scientific justification for blind testing
• The format of validation trials
• Research approaches to the characterisation of ‘skill’ versus ‘expertise’
• Elements of  cognitive method validation
• The estimation of the relative probative power of FDEs’ identification and exclusion opinionsRevision and corrective action strategies and impact of results